While Mikami Yu began his little lesson...
Thousands of miles away...
In Kirigakure, in the Land of Water.
An intelligence report on the latest developments at the front was brought back by Kirigakure's Anbu and delivered to the Mizukage Residence, where the Third Mizukage, Suien, was eating.
After hearing the Anbu's report, Suien let out a furious roar. He slammed his bowl of preserved mustard greens rice upside down onto the table and waved both hands wildly. "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
"Karatachi Yagura is Kirigakure's strongest Jonin, second only to me! Even he lost? And not only did he lose, he handed both tailed beasts he took with him straight to Konoha?! This—"
How did that make any sense?!
Those were two tailed beasts, not two pigs being fattened for slaughter!
In theory, simply dropping them into Konoha and letting them run wild would have thrown the village into chaos and left Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others scrambling. Yet they couldn't even conquer a Konoha outpost on the Land of Fire's border, and both had been captured?
Was the Zhuohua Town Outpost the most impregnable fortress in the Land of Fire or something?
What the hell were Karatachi Yagura and Jinin Akebino doing, fighting a war this badly?!
Even if he bent over backward to give them the benefit of the doubt—
Even if Yagura and the others were all useless freeloaders, wasn't that lord there to back them up?
Had even that lord lost?
Yes, that was right.
As a former guard to the First Mizukage, Byakuren, Suien had met Uchiha Madara.
He was also one of the few people who could interact with Madara while knowing his identity.
Because of the restriction Uchiha Madara had placed on him beforehand, Suien couldn't reveal that truth. Nor did he have any